All In A Days Work
by Mercedes Wolfcry
Summary: An original story: Shaye is just your average teen, with the average teen drama and problems, though she has an above average secret. Shaye's secret is known by one other; her best friend. Shaye is not human. Neither is her friend for that matter.


As it is, I don't remember much of my first shift. I've been able to shift for a long, long time. Well, actually, to some people it wouldn't be so long ago. I was eight when I had my first change, and it was the day my life changed forever. As a little kid I was always the odd man out; a little to slow on the track, not the best at my grades, the last picked for any team, and I had hard core Asthma that plagued me for the longest time. It still does, but not as bad now. I can at least make it once around the track before I start huffing and puffing.

Anyways, it was in early July when I had my first shift. I had been out in the field looking for any black berries that could have been ripe, and I had felt the first cramps of a forced change. Thinking it to just be a random thing, I didn't leave from the maze of blackberries. Now that I look back on it, I'm also glad that I didn't. I ended up writhing in pain on the ground, flailing and panicking in my agony. It all blanks out after that, but there was a report in the newspaper of a goat that was mauled several miles away. The news people had thought that it was a cougar attack, something that sometimes happened in Oregon. I woke up again in the exact same spot that I had first shifted, and since then I've never had a black out again

It was the day before the last week of freshmen year ended, a Sunday, and I sat against the ancient pine tree in our field, watching the stars slowly start to appear with my best friend, Kayla, and my loyal canine companion, Storm. Kayla was rambling on and on about Orion's belt and all the other constellations that she was curious about while the cows in the pasture next to us were mooing in melancholy at being ignored. The only thing that interested me was the moon. Since long, long ago I've had, what my mother calls, a moon struck expression whenever I see it. Truly, it's not hard to lose yourself when you look at it, and it calls to some people more then others. The moon is just so round and perfect, heavenly almost, as it hangs heavily in the sky, seemingly suspended there only by the stars and the Milky Way.

"Shaye, hello, earth to wolf-girl." Kayla called as she waved her thin and bony hand in front of my face.

I pulled my blue eyes down to her smaller form, "What, mosquito?"

"I am not a bug!" she shrieked and scratched my arm roughly, leaving small white lines on my tough skin. Kayla sighed dejectedly as I rubbed my arm. While she doesn't exactly have claws or talons, she does have small nails that do hurt the skin when scratched hard enough. "You know I hate it when you call me that and ignore me."

"And yet it's so true and unavoidable."

"Yeah." She sighed to me. Kayla took on a sly grin, and she turned to me, "So, you and Jack huh?"

I fiddled with the end of my tee-shirt when it pulled up slightly over my stomach, "It's not official or anything, but yeah. We're to shy to actually say it's real yet."

Kayla laughed at me boisterously, "It's about time too! You've liked him for years, and your, like, a perfect match!"

I hauled myself up right, disturbing Storm and making Kayla slide over a bit lest she be stepped on if I lost my balance, "Not really," I said as I stretched my arms and popped my back contently. "I mean, we have some similar likings yes, but beyond that, well, we've been friends since the first grade and he likes _peppers_." I made a face and dusted off my jeans. "Its not like we can actually be _together_, you know what I mean?" I said to her, extending a hand down to her so she could haul herself up with it. I looked up at the moon.

Kayla grasped my hand and pulled herself up, "Yeah, it's kinda like my problem." She sighed as we headed towards my house, an old beat up white mobile home, with Storm yapping at our heels exuberantly. Well, as exuberantly as an old dog could. "Though you don't have to deal with the lust that comes with each and every paper cut…"

"True, so true Kayla," I laughed slightly as my foot slipped in to a mole hole that sent me tilting towards her. Her hand steadied my larger form to keep me from unbalancing, using strength that was unbefitting of her body, and I kept walking as I righted myself, "Who knows? You may find another in high school, as may I."

As we passed the flowerbeds filled with rhododendron, roses, and some flower that I didn't know, we ended up walking up the hand built deck. Kayla looked at me and sat on the railing, symbolizing that we were going to talk out here more so I took a seat in an old plastic chair. Storm settled at my feet, and I leaned down to run my hands over her fur, enticing happy grunts and noises from her, "I can't see you with anyone other then Jack, really. He's blond, sure, and has a strange sense of humor, but my god his eyes are to die for!" she squealed, "He's like the polar opposite of you in looks, so it's like the yin-yang crap that we studied in class!"

Kayla was right on the dot about the polar opposite's thing. I stood at six foot even, slightly chunky, a bushy mane of red-brown hair that should rest at the bottom of my shoulder blades and non-impressive blue eyes. Jack was a few inches shorter then I, blond with gorgeous green eyes. However, no matter how you disguise it, he's still the same goober I know and have been friends with since first grade, and everyone knows it too. But he's also human, off limits to me and my kind, as far as I know anyways.

Kayla on the other hand, was shorter then me, approximately five foot four, has hazel green eyes, and brown hair in a bob-cut. She was anorexic thin, wore more makeup then I even _owned_, but her weight was due to the fact her metabolism was faster then a cheetah. She could eat all the fatty foods she wanted, like _McDonalds_ everyday, four or five times a day, and she wouldn't gain any weight. We would know, too. Kayla and I did a test, and found that she did not get anything other then a slight bit of gas from all the grease, fatty acids, and cholesterol.

I raised my hand and scratched my scalp. "I guess so." I said. I took notice of how her hazel eyes followed my arm, and how they landed on my neck. The red tint that came to her eyes told me that she needed to feed as she nodded at me. As I put my arm down I asked her, "When did you last feed?"

She swallowed thickly and ran her tongue across her lips. I caught sight of a small fang, not fully extended. "A few weeks ago."

I didn't say anything as I got up and walked to her while calling to my Mama that we'd be back in a few. Taking her wrist in my hand, I dragged her to the barn and switched on the light. It illuminated the darkness slightly, and as I sat down on a hay bale with Kayla, Storm decided that Kayla had become a threat and had started barring her fangs at her. I hauled myself up and locked Storm in one of the many old calf stalls where she could cool off. Once I was back down, I turned to her and I narrowed my eyes and barred my teeth at her, "You know how dangerous that is! You need to feed at least once a week, Kayla, I though you should know better by now!" I scolded her. "Kayla, you would never live with yourself if you hurt or killed a human! What if you had turned on one of our classmates? The teachers? Hmm?"

She hung her head and said to me, "I know, Shaye, I know. It's really hard to find any prey in the city, and I'm not about to prey on pets and humans!"

"Then travel a bit! Come out here, hunt the coyote's or the deer, or even wake me up and I can help you." I gave a small sigh and hung my head. "We can do it tonight. I need to hunt. My body has been aching for the change."

"I don't think I can last that long, Shaye, I really don't." she exhaled noisily and gazed at my neck hungrily.

Rolling up my sleeve, I gave one last look at the flawless skin of the soft side of my underarm, and offered my arm up. "Take from the top, where Mom won't see. Be quick, too, I want to go inside."

Before I had even finished, she was in my lap with her thin little fangs in my flesh. It's weird, having your blood sucked. You can actually feel it leave your body, and it always hurts. Always. Kayla whimpered in ecstasy, and from what she told me the last time she did this, she said my blood was what she considered a delicacy even though it tasted like dog. Apparently along with blood type O, AB positive and AB negative are considered a delicacy, like a dessert or something. It had been slightly awkward. Kayla is the only bloodsucker I allow to have my blood, the only one that I know personally too. Resting my hand on her hair, I leaned my head back and waited, curling my lip occasionally when she would tug the tender flesh in search of more blood.

That's right; Kayla is our local vampire, and not the sparkly kind ether, and my best friend. At our little country high school, school she happens to be the only bloodsucker, like I'm the only werewolf. As far as I know, though, the rest of our friends are human.

When she was done, more or less, she pulled back and licked her lips. I leaned down and brushed my rough fingers around the tiny holes a couple of times. They weren't bleeding and the surrounding skin was pale white. "Drain that vein dry?" I asked in amusement. Flexing my arm, I worked a little bit of blood down into the veins that had been drained.

"Yes." She answered truthfully.

I sighed as we both got up off the bale. After dusting off my jeans and stretching my now sore arm, I turned off the light after letting the now calm Storm out and we finally headed inside the old mobile home. Once we were inside the warm house, surrounded by the scent of fresh cooking meat, my Mother walked into the kitchen holding one of the peanut butter cookies I had made the day prior. Her dark red hair, cut to her chin, was slightly messy and her green eyes were sparking with a knowing mischief as always. The freckled skin over her nose was wrinkled, as was the skin next to her eyes, from smiling. My Mama, my adorable mother, was a human as far as I know; though how she had a werewolf child, I won't ever know. I suspect she knows that we're different, but she hasn't ever confronted ether of us about it.

"Good cookie, Mama?" I asked her and took a seat on the top of the stove. The stove was a little warm, not quite uncomfortable but not quite comfy ether. Kayla snatched the last corner of the cookie, there for stealing the last bite of the cookie and nodded in agreement to what Mama said next.

"Always." She said as she shoed me away from the oven. "You girls are just in time; I thought I was going to have to call for you." She chirped to us while popping open the oven door, "The steaks done enough for the two of you?" Taking a knife and fork in her hands, she cut into the meat using her right and lifted it up with the fork on her left. It was all nice and red on the inside, so I nodded to her. After plopping on a plate, Mama looked to Kayla and did what she did for me for her, "Kayla, is this good?"

"Yeah Aunty Tina, its perfect." Kayla responded as she swallowed.

Mama nodded and pulled it out of the oven; "I honestly don't know how you girls can eat it like this. It's practically mooing at me!"

_Ah, the complaints of Mama, they never get old. Food jokes are good too._

Kayla and I shared a look and started cackling. "Moo!" Kayla exclaimed in her laughter.

"'Please don't eat me!'" I said between bouts of giggles. "Ah, Mama, you crack me up."

Mama smiled at me and winked, amusement glinting in her eyes. "Like an egg?"

"You got it!" Kayla said.

Once I could breathe again, I sighed and rubbed my face that was aching from smiling, "Ah, food humor, it never fails to get me laughing."

It was a comfortable silence while we waited on Mama's food.

Once Mama had her steak done and the noodles too, we all took our seats on the deck table. I happily dug into my meal, the warm semi-raw meat making my senses tingle and the softness of the noodles added to it all. The sauce that was cooked into the meat tingled on my tongue, and the tangy taste of the raw parts made me almost purr with delight. We were having dinner late, as it was around ten now, and Mama was falling asleep in her meal.

Mama, however, did finish it not to long after we did, and she gathered our plates. With a yawn, she said to me, "I'm going to bed. Don't stay up past eleven, okay girls? You have to remember that you have school in the morning."

"Yes Mama." I lied. "We're gonna camp in the barn."

"Okay."

When she was gone, I stood up and stretched. My spine gave a slight cracking noise, and gave me a satisfyingly stretched feeling. Once the lights were out, and the house was dark, we left the deck and headed for the gate that leads to the corral. We leapt clean over it, and landed heavily in the mud that actually wasn't mud. I gave an irritated growl when my foot slipped into a pile of slightly wet cow manure, but we managed to maneuver the worst parts and ended up in the field where our other cows were sleeping peacefully.

Silent all the while, we made it all the way to the back of the field where the brambles and black berries were the thickest. Kayla gave me one look. "I'm watching you."

"No, I've told you this time after time. You're not ready for it yet." I shook my head and stripped off my shoes, as they were the only things that wouldn't shift with me. Though sometimes when I shifted, my cloths would rip anyways. Its not a pretty sight, Kayla."

"Then when?" she whined to me. I hate it when she whined.

"You're supposed to be older then me. Please act your age, it's unbecoming of you." I sighed and pinched the bridge of my nose with one hand and pulled off a sock with the other. Sometimes my feet had a funky stench.

She huffed at me and breathed, "Fine. You never answered my question."

Off came the other sock.

I waved her off and walked to a different bush clearing, "Sometime this summer." I called over my shoulder as I went.

"You better be telling the truth!"

"I never lie."

"That's a lie! Now hurry up and change, I'm thirsty!"

I sighed and shifted on my toes. Popping my neck, I started the change.

It doesn't take long to change, two minutes at most, seconds at least. But, even if its short, it always hurts just a little bit. My toes and feet started first, the bones grinding, breaking, and molding into a new shape. I rocked forward onto my toes, now paws as my heel's shifted upwards, adding about a foot and eight inches to my height. My toenails grew out into claws. My pants disappeared inside my skin. My calves thickened slightly, the muscles toughing and coiling to make high leaps easy, my knees and thighs were hardly changed, just thickened and strengthened. The part that hurts the worst in my opinion is when my spine grows out and forms a tail, and when it started I groaned loudly and gasped.

"You alright?" Kayla called to me.

"Yeah," I gasped again, " 'm fine."

The tail, _my_ tail, long and fluffy, brushed the middle of my calves as my upper-body shifted. The stomach area pulled in slightly and was quickly covered in grayish white fur. It crawled up, my shirt disappearing as it covered my shoulders and neck. As it moved around and up my back, the fur shifted to a light brown with some black stripes through it. My hands began to darken and the fingers to lengthen, the slightly callused bottom that was once a soft pinkish tan turned black and rough like the pads on a dog's foot. My nails darkened, thickened, and grew into thick claws just like my toenails had.

My neck extended up and thickened out slightly. My hair grew down to meet the fur that was growing up my back and gave me a thick patch of fur, a ruff. The ruff is more like a lions mane then anything else, though not nearly as thick. I felt the teeth in my mouth sharpen and a few change shape. My nose flowed down my face as it extended and settled on the end of my snout, turning black and changing shape as well. My ears pointed and grew atop my head. The fur all connected, and thickened in a general sense. I ran a hand through the thicker top part of my hair, and with a sense of satisfaction, noted that my change had completed.

Crouching, I shook myself like a wet dog to rid myself of the last tingles from the change. My cloths shifted with me this time, I noted as I looked at myself. Letting out a huff, I brushed the bangs from my face as I walked from the bush. I towered over Kayla more then I normally did. This would be the first time we hunted together, and it was quite amusing. To show my amusement, I lifted my lips in a wolfish grin and let out a chuffing laugh.

She circled around me, inspecting me like she does a stranger or an odd looking bug. I flicked my tail at her and turned to face her while crossing my arms over my biceps. I arched a fuzzy eyebrow and twitched my whiskers and nose. The stale scent of deer, cattle and dead mice floated through my nose as I inhaled. Upon deeper realization, I could smell faint hints of the coyotes across the street and cougar up the mountain that the wind had carried down.

"Can you talk?" Kayla asked me. "'Cause if you cant then we're going to have some communications problems."

I parted my jaw and let my tongue hang out slightly, "Duh." I cleared my throat and swallowed. My voice was gruff, more growl-like then normal; though the reason was because it was coming from not totally human vocal cords. It had a rasp to it, much like a pack a day smoker. Words were slightly harder to form, due to the fact that manipulating my tongue in my mouth was more difficult, so I had to take my time to say each word.

Kayla beamed at me. "Cool."

I turned and began moving through the dense foliage with Kayla following at right behind me. Her shoes slipped a lot and got caught on everything, making her squeak slightly and grab my fur to keep from falling. When we reached the fence that lead into the neighboring forest that I had explored a lot in my years, we hopped it; well, I did and then I lifted Kayla over it by the back of her shirt. I pulled her closer and set her on my back so her loud shoes didn't make any noise to scare away prey. I padded along, my large paws hardly making a noise over the long dry grass but leaving fairly deep dents in the ground.

"Put me down Mercy," Kayla whined in my ear, "I can walk on my own."

"Yeah? You can also scare away any prey that's within three miles of here." I whispered back to her. "You have horrible taste in hunting shoes."

Kayla didn't respond, though I had a feeling she was silently fuming at my insult even though she knew it to be true.

I passed through the trees', all ancient and tall, and walked silently passed a herd of deer. I paused to check up on them. The stag stomped his hoofs and waved his horns at me and I kept my distance. The doe's corralled the young deer, though didn't take much fear from my presence. I was commonly here, keeping watch and they knew me as a guardian, their reaction was to Kayla. Kayla was eyeing them hungrily, her eyes taking on the typical red tint that hinted thirst and her small fangs peeking out from behind pale lips. I turned and went on my way; one of my hands came back and locked around her leg to make sure she stayed there.

As soon as we were all the way down the hill, I let her off on a fallen tree. "We're crossing the street." I said to her. "We'll have to hop the river because I never hunt here. This is a safe haven for the deer." I inhaled, "Later I can show you one of my favorite deer. You can make the jump right?"

Kayla cocked her hip to the side and rolled her eyes at me. Her eyes were glowing a brilliant ruby color now. "Yeah, well duh Shaye. I'm a blood sucker; I can fly a short distance over the water."

"Then why didn't you fly instead of me carrying you?"

"Because I didn't want to fly. I'm feeling too lazy right now."

I said nothing, just starting out onto the road, hopping the back fence and waiting for Kayla to float over. I stood in the center of the road, and as I stood there, a truck started up the road. Looks like the loggers were out early.

"Truck!" I called as I dashed into the under brush. I waited, hearing Kayla do the same on the other side, for the truck to pass. Soon, the truck rumbled down the road and passed us in a flash of white and blue semi truck. I waited a few minutes and then called Kayla over.

And then we were off again. We scared a coop of chickens and a Great Dane almost found me, but eventually we made it to the river. We stood on the bank of the river, Kayla giving me a disbelieving look.

"You seriously think you can jump that?" She asked me.

I nodded to her, "Just watch me."

I crouched and bunched my muscles, making my legs bulge where the muscles were coiled. I took a deep breath through my nose, and then I jumped. I was soaring though the air, my fur whipping around me. I curled my feet in front of me and landed on my toes on an old rock, letting my body rock forward in motion so that I did not complete a miraculously embarrassing face plant that I had done many times before I figured out the whole jumping business.

Kayla flew over quickly and landed next to me. "So you can." She nodded.

I turned and started up the thickly treed slope with Kayla following me up. As we passed an old rotten stump, I paused and lifted my nose to the air. I could smell our target; an old male deer that was way past his expiration date. I motioned with my muzzle for her to follow me, and then I got on all fours and put my nose to the ground to start tracking the stag. I ended up leading us through the brambles and too an open clearing where the stag was grazing on a black berry bush. I rocked back onto my toes and crouched down.

"Take him." I rasp quietly to Kayla.

She nodded and flew up higher. Her mouth opened, and her fangs dropped down to their full length. I watched her float silently over the stag before dropping down and landing on his back. She was merciful to the old one, and she just broke his neck quickly instead of dragging it out like I had seen some predators do. I stood and trotted across as she sunk her fangs into the still twitching body. Its hot blood flowed slightly out of the corners of her mouth as she drained it dry. I guess my blood wasn't very filling.

Kayla panted as she drew back and licked her lips. Her eyes weren't glowing as much, but she bit down again and finished the rest of her meal. I stopped by the bush he had been grazing on and fingered a couple of the half bitten off leaves. I felt her tap my arm as she licked away all the traces of blood around her lips. "Your turn," she said to me.

I nodded and dug in. I won't go into detail, though, because the sight had Kayla turning away. I scoffed into my meal; she could suck the life out of anything with just two teeth, and she couldn't handle me eating.

When I was done, I found her facing away from me. I got myself up right and went to tap her shoulder. She jumped slightly, and turned to me. "I'm done." I said to her.

"I see that. We should head back, you need to clean your face… muzzle… thing, and I want to meet your deer."

I nodded to her, and we started down the mountain. As we crossed the river, I could see the moon was at the point where it signified two in the morning. I stopped on the bank and rinsed my hands and my face in the cool waters. When I was done and we had moved on, we waited in the bushes after we had crossed and gotten to the road for a truck I could hear rumbling down the road. As the wind blew passed us, I coughed as the car exhaust blew into my open mouth and made my eyes water slightly.

We crossed the road and were well into the forest when I caught the scent of my favorite Doe. I angled toward the neighbors, who owns the property that we're on, house. Passing the pond that I had took many a picture of, I ended up at the edge of the forest soon enough. She stood out in the middle of the field, dark chocolate in color, and if I went out there, I could be seen, and so could Kayla. I whistled through my nose as Kayla gave me an odd look. The doe looked up and headed towards us. I whistled again.

The doe reached us soon, though a little wary of Kayla she was still friendly. I had helped her with her fawn some years ago when we had a bad year and there was nothing for her to eat. I had brought her some of our feed for the cows. "This is my friend, Kayla. She won't hurt you, I promise." I crooned to the deer when she rubbed against my hand.

"She's really pretty Shaye. Does she have a name?" Kayla asked me as she offered a hand to the doe.

The doe sniffed it, and seeming deemed her a friend because she moved from me to rub on Kayla. I watched with soft eyes as the doe leaned up to lick Kayla's cheek, causing the girl to giggle. "She has no name. She's wild and will remain so. To name her would be to claim her as mine."

Kayla nodded to me, and then she shooed the doe off into the woods. "I see your point. Wild things need to remain wild."

I nodded to her. I got a glimpse of the moon, large, and beautiful and was tempted to howl to it. I shook my head and we started traveling around the edge of the forest until we reached where we had started. I stepped behind the bush once more, and began to shift back. It started at my head, and ended with my feet.

I stumbled out of the bush after I finished; having gotten my pant leg caught on a black berry vine, and saw Kayla standing there with her arms folded looking at me. "Are you satisfied for tonight?" I asked her while I put my shoes back on.

Kayla nodded to me and shifted to the side, motioning that we should head to the house, "Yeah. I'm good."

"Good." I said as we started towards the house. One of the cows in the field mooed, and I could hear them start following us; the soft squish and compress of the grass a sure sign of the heavy gentle beasts plodding along behind us. "Stupid cows. Its not even morning and they think we have food." I quickened my pace so that we were sprinting at a human pace through the field.

Kayla huffed slightly as we ran silently. "Yeah. Shaye, your cows are strange. How many cows do you know that are up twenty four seven?"

"Not many." I answered as we made it to the corral. We had to slow down and take our time dodging the cow crap. I sighed and leapt over the fence, Kayla floating over after me. We snuck passed the end of the trailer where Mama was sleeping, and slipped into the barn. I tip toed through the muddy spot in the barn and hopped onto the tractor bucket, then launched off onto one of the half-ton bales.

"Help a girl up will you?" Kayla asked me from over the edge of the bale.

I crawled to the edge and peeked over at her. Kayla stood with her arms up reaching for me. Sighing, I leaned my arms down and slid a bit more over the edge. Kayla jumped up at me and grabbed for my hands. She missed. "Jump, Bug, Jump! I'm not going down any further." She jumped again, and I caught her by the fingers.

"Only took me two times!" she exclaimed as I adjusted my grip to where I was gripping her forearms. Kayla began pulling herself up my arms to where she was gripping my shirt. She stopped once she got there.

I sighed exasperatedly, "Why don't you just float up?" I asked her.

"Because I don't want to. I'm entitled to my lazy moments."

I didn't respond. Inching backwards, I let myself drag her partially up the bale before letting her pull herself the rest of the way up. Curling up on my side, I yawned and let out a small oomph when Kayla's head dropped onto the junction between my ribs and my pelvis. "And what do you think _you're_ doing?"

Her knees came up and curled around my head, so I took the chance to use her thighs as a pillow. She snorted at me, "Well, I'm using you as a pillow, like your using me as one."

I yawned and closed my eyes sleepily, "Fair enough." I murmured to her.

"Night."

"Night." I yawned again.

Kayla yawned, too, and snuggled into the soft junction between my ribs and my pelvis and sighed as she sank into sleep. I let a smile ghost over my face, before I too went into the dream world.


End file.
